Haryana register 131 run win over Jharkhand

Jamshedpur: Despite a valiant ton by captain Manish Vardhan (106), Jharkhand sufferred 131-run defeat at the hands of Haryana on the final day of the four-day Ranji trophy plate group B league tie at the Keenan stadium here today.

Haryana declared their first innings this morning without adding any run in the overnight score of 286 for six and set a tough victory target of 355 for Jharkhand.

Chasing the target on the fourth innings pitch, Jharkhand were all out for 223 in the penultimate mandatory over.

Vardhan fought single-handedly to pull out a face saving draw if not victory but his effort was not enough as the rest of the batsmen surrendered before the aggressive bowling attack of the vistors.

Vardhan got brief support from Saurabh Tiwari (19) and stitched a 70 run stand for the fourth wicket but that was not enough and finally he was bowled by the Haryana pacer Sanjay Budhwar.

Vardhan's captain's innings was studded with 15 hits to the fence, facing 213 balls in his 300 minutes stay at the wicket.

The last pair tailenders Kuldeep Sharma (3) and Raj Kumar (8 n.o) tried their best to survive the last over of the match but Joginder Sharma had the last laugh when he took the wicket of Sharma to give full five points to his team with this outright victory.

It was second successive defeat of the hosts as Jharkhand lost to Madhya Pradesh in the previous match too.